The 18th Amendment And Prohibition

January 29, 1920 the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was put into effect until 1933 (history.com). Making alcohol totally illegal was an attempt to enforce sobriety. World War I also aided in the prohibition because food was very scarce. The Lever Act of 1917 outlawed the use of grain to manufacture alcohol (Carnes and Garraty 644). Arrests for public intoxication went down drastically, as well as deaths due to alcoholism. Although, more lives were saved many people violated the law in order to consume alcohol. Smuggling alcohol became a huge business. Wine was still legal for religious purposes, but Carnes and Garraty explain that the consumption of sacramental

In the United States, the 18th Amendment was designed to avoid issues and prohibit all various alcohol. In many ways, the citizens of the United States disregarded the law and still found diverse ways to obtain alcohol. The worsening effects of the Amendment played a vital role in the Prohibition Era, in which the law caused the citizens to encounter themselves in violence and barbarity to our nation. The Amendment also created the arise of leaders including Al Capone in which almost gained power of authority in the city of Chicago in which generated intense brutality to our nation. I definitely agree with the idea that the Prohibition Era offered us the citizens of the United States a warning about the various dangers of the outlaw of alcohol

January 1920, the opening year of the 18th Amendment that sought banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” within the United States and its US territories. Many Americans relate this era with speakeasy, public law breaking, and a public disregard for the establishment of prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the first constitutional amendment that sought to limit the rights of citizens and their rights to drink. This would become an attempt that many would soon come to realize as one of the greatest failures in law enforcement in American History. For if an American wants to drink, those with the American spirit for rebellion will surly offer him one.

None of us who are alive today were alive during the PROHIBITON; prohibiting the manufacturing, transportation and selling of alcoholic beverages in the United States, which was known in the Constitution as Amendment 18. The drafting of the 18th Amendment was done by the Anti-Saloon League legislative lawyer, Wayne Wheeler. It’s said to have been written to diligently fight the turn to alcoholic substances to deal with life’s problems. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Andrew J. Volstead, Sponsored the bill before Congress. With Amendment 18th’s ratification came an effect date delay. The government took this action to compensate the liquor industries with an ample amount of time to adjust to what was set to take effect and decimate the industries for at least 10 years. It’s ratification was certified on January 16, 1919, and the Amendment didn’t go into effect until

The 18th amendment was ratified by congress on January 16, 1919 in which the selling and distribution of “intoxicating liquors” was banned. That was the start of what many called the dry decade in the United States. Norman H. Clark’s Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition illustrates the struggles to make the dry decade possible and the consequences that followed it. The 235 page text describes how the Anti-Saloon League was determined to make prohibition possible and the struggles they had to overcome. As well as what directly followed once it was a reality.

January 17,1920 was a turning point in our country’s history. The significance of this day was the initiation of the 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. The decision to pass this law eventually left our economy and tax revenues at an all-time low. In addition, the 18th amendment led to an outbreak in crime and defiance, leaving many lives unsafe. Specifically, criminals found ways to disregard the law and smuggled home brewed alcohol over county lines to illegal buyers. These criminals made large profits covertly without the government knowing.

In January 1920 the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of American took effect in the beginning of Prohibition. That is, that laws preventing the sale, shipment, and distribution of alcohol beverages in the United States. It was no sudden impulse of Congress and or the states, this came after eighty years of agitation, political posturing and being sick of crime rates being outrageous. Daniel Okrent seeks to explain the build up to the era passage of the Amendments, the public’s activities in the age of Prohibition, the ultimate repeal of the law by the 21st Amendment, and the final outcomes of how this affected everything.

In the article “Prohibition” it reveals that the 18th Amendment outlawed the making of, transporting and selling of alcohol in the United States, which was difficult to administer. This law was meant to help improve things such as crime, but it instead brought the opposite. With the increase of violence, crime, and bootlegging, Prohibition ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment added.

In the 1920’s time frame liquor was a source of freedom for all of the people. Organizations that were Anti-Saloon would argue that liquor was a big source of violence of illness for the people or community. The organization believed that if alcohol was prohibited then there would be a big decline in crimes, illnesses, and more than anything that people would respect themselves more. The Eighteenth amendment was then created and alcohol was no longer able to be sold, distributed, nor created in America. Due to this amendment being created men and women soon began to sneak in alcohol into parlors and drink illegally.

Prohibition was added to the Eighteenth Amendment in 1920. Prohibition wouldn't let the people of the United States make liquor by banning of the manufacture, and sales of alcohol. Once Prohibition was put into affect, crime rate went down and so did abuse. The immediate impact of Prohibition was that no one could drink anymore. Prohibition was the act of forbidding something especially by law. In the late 1920s the 18th amendment was started with the Prohibition started in the late 1920 and lasted 13 years until early 1933. Prohibition was impeached after a long process and the 21st Amendment impeached it.

Plus bootleg alcoholic beverages like beer and whisky were created, the whole drinking scene was slowly starting to look like its former self. The most confusing statistic is that before prohibition there were less speakeasies then there were during prohibition. So therefore the introduction of prohibition had actually increased America's alcohol intake rate. When Prohibition started it opened up an opportunity for local gangsters to make some money and then expand their business and many of them took this opportunity. Probably the most famous of all the gangsters was called Al Capone.

As a result of this new law, a new social problem arose. “Seldom has law been more flagrantly violated. Not only did Americans continue to manufacture, barter, and possess alcohol; they drank more of it.” Americans who supported prohibition, argued that if drinking alcohol was illegal, the public would recognize and respect the law, and in turn, would give it up. During the start of prohibition, it appeared as though it was working. But, what was really going on, was that since the transportation and production was not allowed, bootleggers had to find ways to do it without being caught. The price of beer rose, because it had to be transported in large barrels, which was more difficult. As a result, people started drinking more potent hard liquor. It took less to get drunk, therefore it was easier to transport, thus, it was cheaper. Americans would drink this potent liquor and get drunk a lot faster, for less money. As a downfall, however, the liquor had no standards. The rate of alcohol related deaths due to poisoning drastically increased from 1,064 in 1920, to 4,154 in 1925.

During the 1920’s there was an experiment in the U.S. “The Prohibition”, this experiment, made by the government, was written as the 18th amendment. The prohibition led to the bootlegging, increase in crimes, and gang wars.

A huge spike in crime resulted over the thirteen years Prohibition was enacted and prisons became overpopulated. Convictions for liquor offenses in federal courts rose from an average of 35,000 in 1922 to 61,383 by 1932 (Rebman). The statistics show there is clear evidence that prohibition was not fulfilling its initial purpose of protecting American families as well as the society from alcohol abuse. Instead, society received an overall negative impact from this experiment. Prisons in the United States became too crowded over a ten year period (1920-1930), prison numbers rose by 7000 (Rebman). The court system became clogged with ordinary people being prosecuted for possession or consumption of alcohol. This prevented the legal system dealing with more serious crimes and real criminals on a regular and rapid basis, thus affecting the quality of, and swift dispensation of, justice for everyone. Liquor offenses were not the only crime that can be credited to Prohibition. Nationally the homicide rate per 100,000 people rose two-thirds during this time period (Engdahl). The 1920’s and 1930’s were significantly impacted as America had seen an unprecedented growth of

People for prohibition would state that if drinking is banned, then Americans would simply drink less. However the prohibitionists were right only for a short amount of time, there was an impressive enlargement in less than a year. Since producing and shipping in alcohol was illegal, the booze lovers needed to discover ways to steer clear of being caught (“A Nation of scofflaws”). When the price of beer went up, due to it having to be moved in large sums, thereby its popularity dwindled. Nonetheless, hard liquor was more intoxicating and it was very simple to bootleg little amounts, and thus it popularity soared. An additional problem generated by prohibition was unlawful products had zero quality. In nineteen-twenty there were one-thousand